International Disaster Update...
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Cyclone
Nargis impact and relief efforts in Myanmar
(Burma)
By: Joshua
Benitez
On May 2, 2008, cyclone Nargis made landfall
in Burma.
Nargis
was a category 4 cyclone with sustained winds of up to 135 mph and the
deadliest tropical cyclone since 1970. The
cyclone drove before it a storm surge 7.5 meters high and swept the
Irrawaddy
Delta in the southern part of the country killing over a hundred
thousand. The
Burmese government formally declared the regions of Yangon,
Ayeyarwady, Bago Divisions and Mon and Kayin states as disaster areas.
Yet, it
was not until May 6 that the Burma
government officially asked the United Nations for help.
India,
Italy, Malaysia,
Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States of America
were among the first countries to respond with aid. In fact, the
largest
pledged sum from any single nation, approximately $33.5 million, was
donated by
the United Kingdom.
The UK’s
Department for International Development sent an international relief
team to
help with the coordination of the international relief effort. However,
the
Burmese government did not officially endorse international assistance
but only
stated they were willing to accept it conditioned to be handled
directly from
government to government. On May 9, Burma’s military junta
declared
that their acceptance of international aid relief would be limited to
financial
aid, food, medicines and other supplies, but would not allow additional
foreign
aid workers or military units to operate in the country. The government
denied
visas for the international relief teams, seemingly, for political
reasons.
When the Burmese realized they could not count on their government to
protect
them and help them recover from the crisis, they turned to the monks
for
relief.
The Buddhist monks have always been an
important part of
life in Burma.
But since the cyclone, the Burmese have been growing even closer to the
monks.
The monks took it for themselves to carry out relief operations. People
paddled
for hours on stormy waters traveling for miles to reach the one source
of help they
could rely on. While the government obstructed relief effort, the
Buddhist
monasteries in the delta still standing were packed with refugees.
Senior monks
organized their own relief campaigns with convoys of trucks filled with
drinking water, rice, beans, onions, tarpaulin, cooking utensils and
construction materials donated from all over Myanmar that were pulled
into the
International Buddhist Missionary Center in Yangon from early morning
on. Each
day after dawn, a convoy of trucks or a barge on the Yangon River
departed for the delta, loaded with volunteers and relief supplies.
However,
the monks also had the burden to balance their moral duty to speak out
on
behalf of the suffering people and help them with not angering the
government
so as to protect their social programs. By early June, the junta was
already
forcing refugees to return to their home towns, undermining the monks’
efforts
to provide relief.
It remains unclear how many deaths are a
result of the
government’s lack of response and obstruction of foreign aid.
Nevertheless, the
monks’ emergency response is without a doubt responsible for saving
plenty of
lives. It has been five months since Nargis, and Myanmar
still has a long way to go
on the recovery path.
Sources:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7403324.stm
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/world/asia/18myanmar.html?fta=y
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/20/myanmar.farming/index.html
http://www.nj.com/helpinghands/carlyrothman/index.ssf/2008/05/new_role_for_myanmar_monks_dis.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/07/world/asia/07delta.html?fta=y
http://www.usaid.gov/locations/asia/countries/burma/cyclone_nargis/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Nargis
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